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Bruins too much for Panthers 4-1

The Associated Press

Updated:
03/14/2013 10:03:52 PM EDT

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Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron is congratulated by teammate Brad Marchand (63) after his goal against the Florida Panthers during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Boston, Thursday, March 14, 2013. At right are Florida Panthers defensemen Erik Gudbranson (44) and Brian Campbell (51). Bergeron had two goals in the Bruins' 4-1 win.

BOSTON—Tuukka Rask made 29 saves and Patrice Bergeron scored two goals to help the Boston Bruins beat the Florida Panthers 4-1 on Thursday.

Boston won for the 10th time in 13 games and hasn't lost consecutive games in regulation since March 2012.

Florida lost for the fifth consecutive time and has dropped eight of nine.

Boston scored twice in the first to take a 2-0 lead. Zdeno Chara's scored at 3:55 when his slap shot from the left faceoff circle beat Panthers goalie Scott Clemmensen.

Bergeron connected for his seventh after converting a pass from Brad Marchand at 14:56.

Shawn Matthias scored a short-handed goal for Florida after outhustling Bruins defenseman Dougie Hamilton and recovering an errant Milan Lucic pass to beat Rask, cutting the lead to 2-1 at 3:10 of the second period.

Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara, of Slovakia, is congratulated by teammate Dougie Hamilton (27) after his goal against the Florida Panthers during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Boston, Thursday, March 14, 2013. ((AP Photo/Charles Krupa))

Shawn Thornton scored at 12:43 of the third period when he knocked in his own rebound for a 3-1 lead.

Bergeron added an empty-net goal with 58 seconds remaining to cap the scoring for the Bruins.

Rask improved to 14-2-3 on the season and 6-1 all time against Florida with a 0.99 goals-against average.

Florida has allowed more goals than any team in the NHL with 105.

Notes: Boston evened its all-time record against Florida to 15-15-4-3 and the Panthers and Minnesota Wild are the only two teams with franchise winning records in Boston. ... Bruins coach Claude Julien moved into second place in franchise coaching victories with 246. ... Clemmensen and Rask entered the game both allowing 36 goals, but Rask had recorded 600 more minutes of playing time.

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... Florida has scored two goals or fewer during its five-game losing streak. ... Nathan Horton had a goal disallowed with 2:34 remaining.

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